Inflation and deciding on a vacation!

[CGB]

Ten years ago when our kids were in college, we only took a couple of trips during those years because most of our vacation funds were diverted to pay their tuition. Those trips were budget trips that included driving to FL, renting a condo off-property, and only eating a quick-service lunch on-property each day. Quite a change from our previous deluxe stays. But you know what? We still had an awesome vacation, shared some new experiences and made some great memories together. Our first trip back afterwards was club level and the kids missed having their own bedrooms at the condos. Experience definitely expands your perspective.

 

[DCLMP]

Off topic... sorry I can't resist. DCLMP, I love your bandit kitty icon but I only recently figured out what it was! Know how you "see" one thing in an image, then struggle to switch, like in the Old Woman vs. Young Woman Image or the Duck vs. Rabbit Image?

Well, at first glance, I "saw" a man's face with a hat and long hair on your icon and I couldn't get past it, even though the "hat" seemed to be a fez with strange markings. I've added a line drawing below, of what I "saw". Never mind that I couldn't figure out what the odd feathers were about, behind the hat, either (the kitty's ears!). Brother! Your actual kitty icon image is SOOO much better, ha, ha!

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Back on topic... I hope the OP can settle peacefully on a decision. Many people are struggling with their budgets these days (us, included). It's really tough to find that balance, allocating limited funds and limited time left as loved ones either grow up or grow old. Making memories is valuable. So is dealing with a realistic budget that doesn't jeopardize other financial goals/responsibilities now or in the future.

For us, spending the time to have new experiences together is a higher priority than doing it in a certain way or beyond our budget. Even if things don't turn out as we would've wished, the memories are usually good because it was a new, shared adventure. Even an epic hiking, biking, & road trip can make awesome memories. Our (grown) kids have terrific memories of our WDW trips. But they each have favorite trips and none of those were to WDW. Some of our Disney vacations were really great... others were disappointing, drenched with rain, or someone spent half the time sick. No 2 trips were alike.

We're huge fans of stretching our budget to include fun and sometimes splurges. But we don't have any debt and we won't allow an upgrade of fun to bring on new debt either. When we visit WDW, we either exchange into a DVC timeshare week or stay at a nice offsite timeshare resort nearby. I'm not willing to pay Disney hotel prices and sacrifice other experiences to keep total costs reasonable. We usually drive ourselves but if we are staying onsite and we fly, and if rental cars are expensive, we don't rent a car for the whole trip, only for a day ( to pick up groceries and anything we'd forgotten, then drop-off) at the beginning and end of the trip. If our budget is especially tight on a particular trip, we enjoy just one TS meal toward the end of the week, with either QS or easy convenience meals in our condo (full kitchen amenities). Really, the vast majority of humans don't get to do a FRACTION of what we do. 1st world. Vacation is what you make of it! Perspective and expectations.

That's so funny. I've never seen anything but a kitten. I see the old women in the picture. It takes me a while to find the young women. The duck jumps out right away. I agree budgets are hard these days. Disney is going to figure that out in the coming year.